


The Good and The Bad

by cactipresident



Series: The Last moments of a Ghost boy [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Charity Event, Clowns, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends, Fluff, Gen, dying, far frozen, not the sexy kind, student/mentor, talk of death, to the highest degree
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-04-10 10:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4388801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cactipresident/pseuds/cactipresident
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of short stories set in " The Last Moments Of A Ghost Boy" series. Some fluffy, others incredibly sad, and everything in between.  Mostly for world building and for when I'm stuck with the story. I Highly suggest reading the two other stories in the series before reading any of these.</p><p>I can and will do requests for short stories people want from the series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Clowning Around

**Author's Note:**

> I am hiding a major writers block on "What Happens When You Forget" that has lasted for over a year now! So what better way to get over writers block for a story than flushing out said story? Nothing I can think of anyways.
> 
> The first should of course be happy and fluffy and all around good feeling! 
> 
> Between Vlad and Danny before the events in "Accepting Was Harder Than Admitting" but after they made their silent truce pact not to harm the other... too much.

“ Vlad! Stop!” Danny laughed, doubled over with tears in his eyes. “ I can’t take anymore!”

Vlad just glared at the teen, his eyes flashing red momentarily before a grin broke across his face. “ Personally, Badger, I think you should have to help as well.” The grin grew a touch cruller at the thought of Danny in the same or similar outfit as him. Danny’s face in response sobered up his eyes wide.

“ You wouldn’t!”

“ I would.”

Vladimir Master stood in the middle of his living room in a full clown costume. Red puffy wig,bright shiny nose and all. Daniel had shown up unannounced as he usually did so Vlad had no where to hide the atrocious thing. He had time to go invisible  and he couldn’t just make it phase through him. He had to be at a charity dinner for abused children. His accursed secretary had signed him up for being the clown of the evening. She had expected him to have seen it well before hand. But no. The billionaire had only just seen it and scrambled to find a clown costume that looked good enough for a respected member of the community to wear.

Spoiler alert: No such clown costume existed.

But the older halfa wasn’t going down without taking someone with him. That nearest someone was one poor unfortunate Danny Fenton.

Before the younger could react the older male grabbed the back of his shirt like he used to during their fights. While the teen half heartedly fought to escape his grasp he flew out of the building , dragging the poor boy along for the ride.

No one should doubt that Vlad Masters couldn’t do two things at once, though putting a clown costume on a struggling person whilst flying was much harder than making a deal between warring companies while making sure neither finds out.

Once the two landed they were in matching clown costumes much to Danny’s displeasure. He crossed his arms in a very teenage fashion and glared up at his offender. Vlad couldn’t help the laugh that broke through. What can he say, angry clowns always got him. Before long Danny was joining him in laughing the two finding the other equally if not more hilarious.

“ Oh man, you look absolutely ridiculous!” The young halfa gasped out.

“ You should speak for yourself, Daniel.” Vlad smiled back with one eyebrow raised as if questioning the boy for not realizing he clearly looked the sillier of the two.

Danny just rolled his eyes still smiling before playfully socking the older man in his shoulder. Still shaking his head at the billionaire’s antics he lead the way into the building they had landed beside,hidden of course.

Vlad followed silently, the same smile ghosting over his lips. He thought of how incredibly lucky he was to have his once arch rival now on _his_ side. Or was the elder on his side?  Honestly he didn’t care. As long as the boy stayed happy and smiling he’d give up everything. Danny was his little badger. Never his son, though he moved on from that.  He didn’t want him to give up his father anymore, though he still loved Maddie- Nothing was going to change that.  Some things were more important. Like  making the boy smile despite having to do community service.

Danny called his name, asking where the hell the Charity Event was in the big building. The silver haired male shook his head and instead took the lead. Passing by Danny he ruffled his hair despite the boy trying his best to stop it.

 **  
** No, Danny being his badger would do.


	2. Dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set before Accepting was Harder then Admitting.
> 
> Danny struggles with homework while Vlad struggles with decades worth of emotional issues!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if anything is worded weirdly or doesn't flow right, someone ran out of their medicine but decided she wanted to write despite that. My head is in a weird state that is hard to explain unless you've ever stopped taking antidepressants so that might explain why things are a little clunky.

The crackling of the fire was the only noise within the living room despite its two occupants. Both seemed involved in their own worlds, the elder reading important files whilst the younger struggled with homework which -under the guidance of his once nemesis- were getting easier and easier.

Though not easy enough.

Danny sighed loudly and dramatically throwing his papers down onto the hardwood table then throwing himself onto the couch he leaned against while he sat on the floor. Vlad only raised an eyebrow at his antics having seen the exact same dramatics only last week.

The younger halfa ignored him to mumble into the couch about annoying old men who should help a struggling child out more if he had a heart. With a shake of his head and a smile, Vlad stood up putting his own papers on the table a lot more gently than the teen only moments before.

“What’s the problem, Daniel?”

“Life.” Danny grumbled, sitting up now as Vlad sunk to the floor to sit next him.

“Ah, Mathematics.”  The elder figured out when he picked up the discarded homework. He felt the teen nod next to him before pointing to the question that was vexing him.

“Seriously I think dying was easier then the problems they give me!” Fenton complained glaring at his papers.  He grabbed the papers squinting at number ten out of the twenty problems he was given in trigonometry class. He just couldn’t figure out which part of what triangle he was supposed to solve and how. Not like he had an easy time learning all this being skulker decided today was just an amazing day to try to hunt him down. Hard to learn things when you’re being threatened with being turned into a pelt.

A few minutes into staring at his homework to see if maybe it would spontaneously combust he noticed Vlad had said anything. At all. No ribs at his lack of understanding nor at his father's part in his genetic misgivings with math. Danny looked up at his once enemy to see him staring off into space, an odd look on his face.

“Fruit loop?” He probed gently, poking the older halfa in the side.

“What was it like, Daniel?” He whispered, Danny barely even realising he spoke. Before he could question what Vlad meant the elder continued, the same look never leaving his face as he gave away no emotion.

“ To have your friends there… when you died?”

Finally the look clicked into place in the teen’s mind and why it seemed so odd. It was longing.

“Wha- I don’t know man…” The teen stuttered unsure how to continue this suddenly very heavy conversation. “ Wasn’t Mom and Dad with you when you… ya know…” Danny gestured vaguely at his own face hoping Vlad understood.

Vlad just gave a sad chuckle, still staring straight ahead as if he could see something Danny couldn’t. “ No, Little badger… I didn’t die then.” Suddenly Vlad seemed to snap out of whatever weird moment held him for he stood up quickly, brushing off some imaginary dirt from his suit. He cleared his throat now purposely not looking at Danny but everything else in the room. “ Well I believe that’s enough for one night. Good night Daniel, I’m sure you know the way out by now.”

The billionaire moved to walk away, clearly embarrassed by whatever mood took hold of him seconds before. Before he could walk out of the room, Danny grabbed his sleeve causing the man to look at the teen in confusion.

“What do you mean you didn’t die then ,Vlad? You can’t just say that and not explain shit!” The younger halfa scolded to Vlad’s amusement and discomfort.

“I meant what I said, Daniel.” Vlad tried to say in explanation but saw from the look Danny was giving him it wasn’t enough. He sighed similar to Danny did in reference to his math work, dragging one hand through his grey hair.

“ I meant my death wasn’t as quick as yours, Daniel.” With another sigh Vlad sat down in one of his chairs lining his living room. Danny stood standing, his hands clutched close to him as he listened to something that had clearly been bothering Vlad for years.

“The trouble with the ghost acne was it killed me slowly. Very slowly. I died in agony in the hospital as your parents planned their nuptials.” Danny watched as Vlad’s hands turned into fists, the anger as prominent as if it all happened yesterday. “ They visited once, you know. Once and it was merely to tell me how happy I should be for them. Once to tell me they felt bad about the ghost acne but nothing they could do so why not move on from the past and embrace the future?” Vlad gave out a short angry laugh before it all seemed to drain from him causing him to slump into the chair.

“ I died alone in a cold hospital the very night your parents married. My friends had abandoned me. I can see now how it was easy for you to believe yourself a hero when you had your friends there the entire time.” The elder leaned back, his eyes closed as he imagined some scenario where maybe he had his friends with him the entire time or his death was just as quick as Danny’s had been.

“Vlad…”

He raised his hand cutting Danny off from whatever he was going to say. “ It’s fine, Daniel. It was a lifetime ago. I was merely wondering at how nice it felt to have Samantha and Tucker there the entire way.”

“ It was even more terrifying knowing they were there.”

At that Vlad’s eyes opened, staring at the shaking boy next to him still standing. His fists were clenched at his side as he tried not to break down. Vlad’s mouth fell open to say something to ease the child but he could think of nothing. Finally Danny continued.

“ I had to die knowing my best friends in the whole world were watching me the entire time! They had to watch me get electrocuted to death because they dared me in the portal. It was quick thank god, but… I don’t know I don’t think it’s better either way. With or without friends… dying sucks, Vlad.”

The man had to laugh at that, feeling the sentiment fully. “ I suppose you’re right about that, Little Badger. It most definitely does… ‘suck’ “

Standing up, the elder halfa pulled his younger counterpart into a hug, trying to hide the teen from the world that hurt them both so easily. “ You shouldn’t have gone through any of that, Daniel.”

“Neither should you have, Fruit loop” Danny mumbled into Vlad’s suit.

The two stood for several seconds hugging before Vlad coughed and let the teen go, the same slightly embarrassed face from before rearing it’s head again. Danny smiled lightly at his friend.

“ Okay now that mush time is over, never say suck again. It sounds weird coming from an old man.”

“I’ll have you know most young people thing I am cool and very relatable.” Vlad responded slightly offended

“See, that's an old person thing to say.”

“You’re never satisfied are you?”

“Not unless I’m bribed with Nasty Burger.”

 **  
**“And I’m the evil one.” Vlad mumbled leading Danny out of his home to reward the teen for having to deal with him even for a second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've wanted to write a scene like this for a while, hopefully I did it some justice....


	3. You weren't there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dannielle had no where to go but to him.
> 
> Set after Accepting was harder then Admitting, but before What Happens When You Forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I desperately needed to write a chapter about why Danni wasn't at the funeral. I never commented on it in the story but still a big deal she wouldn't come to something that imporant

“ You weren’t  at the funeral.” He stated as he took a deep drag of his cigarette before tossing it onto the ground, crushing it beneath his foot. He turned his head to look at the her, his eyes full of the judgement she fully expected.

“I… I couldn’t go.” She tried to explain although knowing every excuse was as bad as the one before. She couldn’t come up with a good reason. She just didn’t want to see him lying there dead. Actually dead. She didn’t want to see her father cry over him nor her friends. She didn’t want to even acknowledge he was gone.

He just scoffed, the smoke puffing out his nose as if he was a dragon. She watched the toxic smoke float up in the night air, forming shapes before disappearing.

“ No one wanted to go, Danielle. We still went.”

She closed her eyes, her hands balling into fists at her side. Now wasn’t the time for this, she tried to reason. She didn’t come to fight.

“I still couldn’t…”

“mhmm.”

He turned from her, his shoes clipping across the stone leading into his house. “Come in, my dear. You’ll catch your death out here.”

* * *

Neither spoke as they sat on completely opposite sides of the table. He seemed distracted with the newspaper but she knew his eyes were reading nothing. He did that when he was thinking of something but didn’t want to be seen staring into space. Danni in turn played with her food, moving the peas around the plate before pushing the almost untouched food away. Just looking at the food turned her stomach.

Vlad didn’t seem to notice or just didn’t care. He wouldn’t look at Danni and she knew why. Hell she hated looking at herself and seeing him. Getting ready for anything was hell while she tried to avoid mirrors.

“I’ll take you to the Far Frozen today.” Vlad finally spoke, his eyes never leaving his paper to see if she acknowledged or even agreed to what he said. She smiled sadly, knowing why he wanted to take her. They were reassuring each other that she wasn’t him. He was buried away in the ghost zone. She was flying through the sky he should be.

She should have died that night.

* * *

She honestly didn’t expect to find a group of ghosts who worshipped her cousin.

She expect to find the far frozen to be similar to a graveyard or something but it was more lively then she felt it had any right to be. They worshipped Phantom but they seemed oblivious of the loss Danny caused in everyone.

Frostbite seemed friendly enough, he smiled at her showing her Danny’s favorite parts of his realm. He didn’t look at her and see her cousin, he looked and saw Danni  Masters. That's all she wanted from anyone. Even Danny’s friends couldn’t do that.

“ He’s over here.”

Danni followed the ice ghost underneath a natural bridge, Vlad trailed behind them seeming to ignore the very place they were. She could feel both of them growing more uncomfortable after every step they took. Before long the yeti stopped before a door carved into the ice. She watched him give it a look she knew too well before turning to look at them.

“The Savior… He resides in there.I… I will leave you two for this.” The ghost gave the door a pained look before leaving the halfas to their intended goal. As Danni heard the crunching footsteps of Frostbite disappear she looked to her father, waiting for him to say anything. Ever since the far frozen came within their sight he clammed up, not even a snarky comment at the yeti’s breath breaking through. Instead of answering her questioning look he moved forward, pushing the large ice doors open to led her into a cavernous natural ice cave.

Danni kept her head down, following the sound of Vlad rather than the sight of him. She ignored the carvings in the walls, knowing from stories from her cousin that they all depicted his feats in saving the ghost zone. She remembered fondly the afternoon she spent sitting on his bed as he  excitedly explained everything in this realm. She had smiled and joked that they just gave him a fat head, something he did not need help with. He had playfully hit her arm, exclaiming that he’d take her there soon. He said they would love her and maybe they would be able to help her with her powers.

That was a week before… the incident with his parents.

He never took her.She never got to see how much they loved him while he was alive. Death always made people think the best of a person, regardless of how much of a stubborn idiot they were in life. She hoped that at least while he was alive the ghosts of the Far Frozen had sense enough to knock sense into Danny.

She heard Vlad stop in front of her. Cautiously she raised her head, looking at the entrance to yet another cave within this one. Vlad looked down at her before nodding to the door. With  a sigh and a feeling of lead weighing down her every step , Danni moved through the small entrance.

Looking through the smaller part of the cave she saw a giant sculpture of her DNA twin, her original. It took her by surprise how close they got it to his actual likeness, right down to his look of determination as he changed from Human to Ghost. They even had his glowing white rings around his middle.

“I miss him.”

Danni jumped, spinning around to look at Vlad. The raw emotion in his voice scared her. He ignored her shocked looks and took a closer step to the statue, almost reaching out to touch the icy visage.

“Even when we fought I tried to look out for him… I never used my full power against him. I couldn’t, he was only a child for pete’s sake!” The millionaire’s shoulders slumped, his hand dropping to his side. “ I couldn’t protect him from the, when he needed me to.”

Danni wasn’t sure how it happened but she somehow moved herself close enough to him to wrap her arms around his waist, almost demanding a hug back. Vlad stood stock still for almost a minute before conceding. Gently he leaned down, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

  
Maybe he could save his clone… No, He’ll save Danni Masters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vlad stepping up to the dad plate! Go vlad!


	4. Convincing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pre "Accepting Was Harder then Admitting"  
>  A bit spolier-y
> 
> Vlad and Danny discuss how they're going to tell his parents their shared halfa secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually really proud of myself for posting chapters for "WHWYF" so here's some Vlad and danny going over some plans for the big reveal. And them forgoing things that they probably REEEAAALLLLY needed.

“Okay, okay. So you’re going to invite them over. Then I’m going to show up and change in front of them. Do you… do you think that’ll work?”

Vlad smiled at the teen lounging on his couch trying to appear calm and relaxed despite how tightly wound he really was. The older man placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, watching as the teen leaned into his touch. To think the very hand was used to maim the child. He now expected nothing but kindness from him.

Not that he wouldn’t give it ten times over.

“ I do, Daniel.” He answered simply. It had to work. Maddie’s maternal nature would make her unable to harm her very child no matter what she thought. If he showed up first as Fenton then changed into Phantom there was little to no chance of anything happening to the boy. He just knew it.

The ghost boy blew out a breath of relief, his shoulder slumping. “ Good. Good. Alright. I can do that.”

“Yes, you can. Your father might be harder to convince of you being, well, you but he’s always been a tad slow.”

“Vlaaaad.”

“Sorry. sorry! Old habits die hard, as they say!”

“uh huh.” Danny deadpanned, fixing Vlad with a look, knowing he was full of shit.

The look shifted to a small smile before Danny looked away smiling even wider. “ It’s gonna be awesome. Not having secrets anymore.  Are _you_  okay with this?”

He never expected that, Danny asking him if he was okay with Danny revealing his secret to his parents. It wasn’t his secret to reveal but he could see why the child needed to ask. “Fruitloop?”

Vlad shook his head realizing with a start he was staring wide eyed and opened mouth at the teen. “ Of course I’m okay with it, Daniel.” He replied softly.

“Because it’s your secret too  I’m revealing. The second they accept me and what happened they’ll know about Plasmius. I don’t think they would let a second ghost who looks like someone they know go without looking into it.”

The elder looked at Danny before looking away from him as well. He knew he’d have to tell Maddie eventually. It was only a matter of time. “ Like I said. I’m okay with this. It’ll make everything easier for you, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’re doing it!” Vlad pronounced with a clap and a smile.  Danny responded in kind the two smiling at the prospect of living a secret free life.

“ Oh man, I bet mom’s gonna be pissed when she finds out you tried to kill dad. Several times.” Danny laughed, imagining his mom scolding Plasmius. Vlad couldn’t help laughing along.

“ Not anymore mad then she was when you two, ah _“dropped in”_ at my vacation home.”

Fenton couldn’t help the snort that escaped him at the memory of Vlad with two heads. Or the several ghost animals chasing him. The two sat giggling over the admittedly funny things they pulled on each other for the next few minutes, even bringing up when Danny made the front of Vlad’s house disappear to reveal a rather naked millionaire.

As the laughing died down, Danny looked to the window, watching the sun go below the horizon. His smile never left his face thinking of his mom and dad being proud of what he had been trying to do for years. Maybe they would even help him with his ghost patrols, relieving him of some duties but also letting him do his job. He imagined they wouldn’t be too happy about Sam and Tucker helping him but honestly they wouldn’t get the two to stop helping him if they tried. And he tried.

“Daniel.” Vlad tried to start, interrupting  the boy’s musings

“Hmm?”

“ Do you… I have doctors on call. People to protect you as well if things go… south.” He didn’t want to think about it but it was a very real possibility. Somehow either him or Daniel could get severely injured or need something to stop his parents.

“Vlad, calm down. We won’t need any of that. I know them, they’ll accept us both. Well, me anyway.” He joked causing the ex-villain to smile again.

“ If you’re sure…”

“I am!” He confidently exclaimed, even puffing up his chest a little.

“ Minutes ago you weren’t so sure.”

“ And minutes ago you were convincing me to do this!”

The older halfa sighed, rolling his eyes. “ Yes , but to do it safely. If they accept you, it will be all well and good . But what if they harm you? Or worse, Me!” His badger laughed,shoving playfully at the man.

“Puh-lease! They’ll accept me, shoot you a little and we’ll be golden, pony boy!”

“ You are an idiot.”

“And you’re a fruitloop!”  He replied like a grown adult, even sticking out his tongue to emphasis his point.

“Still, Badger, are you positive you don’t want anyone,  save us, there?” He tried to get through the child. It would kill him if something happened and there was nothing there to act as a virtual net.

“ Vlad. I’m sure! Enough about it. I got you having my back and that’s all I need there for this!” Danny tried in turn to get through to Vlad. Why couldn’t he understand that they’d accept him just fine? “ Now come on. You got some dumb council meeting to get to and I have an awesome sleepover with Tuck to get to.”

With some prompting, Vlad finally got up from his couch, groaning about how him being mayor was all Danny’s fault.  Danny just rolled his eyes and replied that maybe if he acted like an adult and not run as mayor to get back at pranks he wouldn’t be in this situation. His argument only seemed to make Vlad not want to go anymore.

“Vlad come on! I got to go, and I know if I leave now you’ll not go and this town will fall apart!”

“Daniel, It's a meeting about what to do with an old tree in the park.”

“Anarchy everywhere!”

“Daniel. plea-”

“Riots in the streets!”

“You are being ridic-”

“ Kid’s skipping school!”

“All right I’ll go!”

The teen grinned, running out the house with a wave and a flash of light, safe in the knowledge he ruined Vlad’s day with the meeting.

Vlad returned the wave half heartedly, unable to get rid of the feeling that what they were doing was going to bite them in the end. With a shake of his head, he dismissed the misplaced emotions and picked up his phone, dialing a number he knew too well.

A few rings and a voice finally picked up.

“Maddie! Hello, my dear…

Yes I know Jack is home right now…

No that’s actually what I came to call about, my dearest. I wish to invite you two over to my place.

I just have something you two need to see. It’s incredibly important but it would probably be better to wait a few days.

Yes in two days is perfect.

 **  
**Thank you, Maddie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It actually hurt writing this a bit. I almost wanted to scream at the two!
> 
> ahhh well
> 
> I love angst too much to not go through with it.

**Author's Note:**

> This will only be the beginning of the many assorted stories for the series. Hopefully I'll be able to post on " What Happens When You Forget" first...


End file.
